Aims : To compare robotic surgery and video-assisted surgery for the treatment of chest malignancies such as lung cancer and mediastinal neoplasms; to provide an update on current application of robotic-assisted surgery and a thorough analysis of results in terms of preoperative evaluation and selection of patients, surgical outcome, postoperative length of stay, complication rate, general costs, learning curve, compared to the video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS).